The invention relates to tissue and organ transplantation.
The field of organ transplantation has enjoyed substantial progress during the last two decades, resulting in marked improvements in short-term graft survival. Organ transplant recipients, however, still face substantial risks of long-term morbidity and mortality. Though modern immunosuppressive regimens have led to a dramatic reduction of the incidence of acute rejection episodes, they have yet to achieve a similar effect for chronic rejection, which is still the leading cause of graft loss during long-term follow-up. In addition, the requirement for life-long immunosuppressive drug therapy carries a significant risk of severe side effects, including tumors, infections and metabolic disorders. The reliable induction of donor-specific tolerance would solve both problems by obviating the need for chronic non-specific immunosuppression and by abrogating detrimental immunological reactions against the allograft.